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Are We Tokens?
2 MLK Oratorical Contestants Debate the Issue
The MLK Oratorical contest was held
February 11 in the Student Union
Cabaret, and participants addressed
this question: "Are you a token black
at UNC?" Michelle Thomas was the
winner. Below is the text of her speech
and that of Terrence Garrison., another
participant. Angela Ray and Annice
Hood also participated in the contest.
By Michelle Thomas
Oratorical Contest Winner
I May the work that I’ve done speak
I forme.
May the work that I’ve done speak
I forme.
I When I’ve done the best I can,
i And my friends don’t understand,
j May the work that I’ve done speak
1 forme.
I
1 A Token Black.
I The Man’s Man.
An Oreo
Gray Boy
Uncle Tom
Sell Out.
Do these terms define me because I
am a Black student at UNC?
The debate over whether African
Americans should attend
predominantly white or historically
black institutions is one that has
been going on since the days of
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B.
DuBois. In their day, there wasn’t
much choice. The majority of
African Americans who were given
the opportunity to acquire a post
secondary education were only
allowed to attend historically black
institutions, but today things are
somewhat different. Now African
Americans have the right to choose
between the two. This is not a
freedom that was easy to come by.
Many fought and died so that we
would be given the opportunity to
make a choice. As African-
American students at a
predominantly- white institution.
we must remember the struggle
that was fought to gain for us this
opportunity. But further we must
fight to ensure that the interests of
African Americans and the African-
American community are being
recognized and addressed; then we
are not selling out, but are reaching
for the realization of Dr. King’s
Dream.
In 1895, at his famous
Atlanta Cotton Exposition speech,
Booker T. Washington set the stage
for separatism by saying “In all
things that are purely social we can
be as separate as the fmgers, yet one
as the hand, in all that pertains to our
mutual interests.” This speech was
followed by the passing of Plessy V.
Furgeson in 1896 that said that
separate but equal would be the law
of the land.
Most Historically Black
Colleges and Universities
(HBCU’s) were founded with
monies donated by white
philanthropists because teachers
were needed for the black
community and skilled and semi
skilled workers were needed for the
white community. Many of these
schools were created as mechanical
and technical institutes, such as
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial
Institute, founded in 1881 by Booker
T. Washington. Washington wanted
to build an institution in Tuskegee
where African Americans could
attend and gain an industrial
education which would lead them
to economic empowerment.
Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCU’s) have come
a long way since that lime. Xavier
University, a historically black
university in New Orleans,
Louisiana, boasts that it has more
African-American students to enter
medical school than any other school
in the country. Spelman and
Morehouse colleges and Howard
and Atlanta Universities have
graduated some of the most
successful African Americans that
this country has ever seen; among
these being Spike Lee, James
Weldon Johnson, Mary Frances
Berry, Thurgood Marshall and
Patricia Roberts Harris. It was
people such as these, who went into
schools which white philanthropists
thought would provide them with
laborers, and turned them into long
standing institutions rooted in the
black community.
HBCU’s were created out
of a basic need from the Black
community but in recent limes have
had 10 compete with predominantly-
white institutions. With the passage
ofCivil Rights legislation, especially
See BLACK, Page 12
Myron P itu/Blaek Ink
Thomas says we must check ourselves and evaluate our
role in the community.
By Terrence Garrison
Oratorical Contest Participant
Am I a token? Yes I am. I am a
token student. I was a token in my
90% white advanced high school
classes, and I am a token student
here at “my” 90% white advanced
university. In fact, I stay on a token
part of campus with the other 1200
or so tokens. And when I graduate,
something tokens aren’t supposed
to do. I’ll be a lean, mean token
machine, ready for the working
world of racism and sexism. I’ll
take with me on graduation day a
wealth of knowledge accumulated
from days of hanging out in the
t(^en closet space called the BCC,
named after a woman, a role model,
who dedicated her career to a
curriculum at a university with a
closet space for tokens and no black
studies department. Now when I
become
succes sful,
some thing
tokens aren’t
supposed to
do, and my
kids ask me,
what was it
like at UNC,
I’ll close my
eyes and say
in retrospect,
thinking
logically and
analytically,
something tokens aren’t supposed
to do. I’ll say:
“Now son, I knew I was a
token cause when they erected a
statue of the student body, I noticed
I was not a part of it I had no
basketball in my hand and no book
on my head and people always told
me I was there because of
affirmative action and that we black
students should not have a black
studies department like the (East)
Asians, the Latin Americans and
the Europeans. I came to the
conclusion
that like
a 1 1
tokens, I
was to be
seen
(except
for in
statues of
t h e
student
body)
and not
heard
(except
for tonight). But the fact of the
matter is that there are 20 thousand
plus while folks here at UNC?
Where are they tonight? Don’tthey
want to hear what these tokens have
to say about hypocrisy and the hoax
called “reverse discrimination”-
NOT.
And then I got mad and militanl-
“I am a black man atapredominately
white university and quite frankly
I’m mad. I chose UNC because of
its reputation as a liberal university,
prestige and its social life. What I
found out when I got here was that
the term liberal means that we group
African Americans together with
homosexuals, handicaps and while
women and then give them all our
token of appreciation. With all due
respect to these groups, I resent
being placed in the same category
See TOKENS, Page 13
“ With all due respect to these groups, I resent
being placed in the same category (unless the
shoe fits of course), because to me it represents an
attempt to downplay the legacy of 300 years of
slavery, a burden which most homosexuals,
handicaps and white women do not carry.”